California Trip 2010

SO much I could post about this 13 day trip...I think I'll just try to bullet point things or I could probably drone on about how much fun we had for a few hours... Pictures to come later!

• Started off in Laguna Beach, wonderfully fun Malan family reunion. Beach, overcast-non sunburn days, PERFECT for us ghostly white-skinned people! Sandcastles, seagull chasing, tidepool wandering, lots of listening to funny Malan relatives' stories. Enjoyable for all. Adam gets a kick out of this funny family for sure.
• Disneyland with Malans and Mark Porter. Tricky with hourly bathroom trips, diaper changes and a baby needing nursing, but we did almost all the 'important' rides somehow. Great time! Stayed until midnight and watched the fireworks. And got a churro. Yum.
• Swimming at (Great) Grandma Malan's house and BBQ in Fresno. Enjoyed seeing (cousin) Heather and kiddos and Malan aunts. Kids loved playing in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard. I'd forgotten how nice and soft Fresno grass is (or how icky the grass is in Omaha?).
• Cabin at Shaver Lake. Ahh. One of the highlights of the trip. Stayed there with Grandma and Grandpa Malan (Mom and Dad), Kara, Matthew, Jonathan, and Alyson. Got to just hang out a bit, the kids played walkie talkie hide-n-go-seek. Spencer was FACINATED by all the rocks and sticks. Indian Rock. Tri-tip from The Meat Market. Pontoon Boat on Shaver with yummy BBQ on the lake. Hike to Rancheria Falls (where Spencer thought it would be fun to try to hike while carrying around boulders), McKinley Grove, Wishon Reservoir (drove over the dam), Courtright with the Smiths. AND the AMAZING pine smell. We vowed to have a cabin there someday, there's really not much more beautiful a place in our opinion--ahh, the beautiful pine trees. Drove by and looked for cabins for sale. To dream...
• Visited Adam's side of the family. Got to see Doug, Parker, Jordan, Matt, and met friend Megan, and of course Grandma Pam and Grandpa Rick. We enjoyed going up to Courtright with them and the kids had fun watching Uncle Jordan skip rocks and attempted to skip some themselves. We enjoyed a lovely lunch there, thanks to Pam. We also had a nice Sunday meal with them at their house in Burrough Valley on 4th of July. One of the evenings, we were able to meet up with the rest of the Smith clan at The Old Spaghetti Factory (yummy mizithra...I even spotted a maserati with the license plate that said mzithra in the parking lot!! Funny!), meet Brie (as well as see Janina and Matt), meet Jeremy (and see Kendra), and see Uncle Mike and Aunt Marina. We enjoyed catching up with them. We just love this group so much.
• On our way out of town we stopped by Mark Porter's place to visit Mom and Dad Porter, who were down from Oregon, on their way to a family reunion at Pismo. SO glad we could see them for a few minutes, they're just wonderful people. It was also fun to see 'our' old apartments, El Cortez, where Mark lives and where we lived during our first couple years of marriage. Life BEFORE Omaha. Man, that seems like a million years ago now!
• Ending our trip, we drove up to visit (Great) Grandma and Grandpa Carling in Chico. Oh how we've missed them. They nearly brought me to tears multiple times. So much to learn from these faithful grandparents. I'm constantly in awe of their faith in the Savior, their love of others, their service, and their energy. We came up after Grandma had been in the hospital and we were a little worried about our visit causing too much stress on her (and we still hope it wasn't too taxing), but we just enjoyed them so much. Grandpa came with us to Bidwell Park where we enjoyed a picnic, with yummy apricot pineapple jam on our sandwiches that he'd made. Justin was facinated by his pantry at home of canned items that he canned. Yum. The kids played in Caper Acres, and then Adam took the big boys swimming in the creek there while I got to sit under a tree's shade and chat with Grandpa for hours while tending to Carson. I'm SO grateful for this time I got to spend with Grandpa. He's a remarkable man. I asked him about his 6 Western States 100 mile races that he's run over the years and learn of his training and what it all entailed. I'm facinated by it all. Truly one amazing man. And to learn of his service in the temple and ward, it was so great. A memory I'll cherish.
• The boys were amazed by the fruit trees in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard. Since nothing like that truly exists outside California's Central Valley (to that extent anyway), the kids enjoyed being able to pick out pluots to eat from the trees, look at the squash, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, grapes, limes, peaches, apricots, and many other yummy things growing in their orchard/backyard. That was another thing I vowed, that someday I'll have orchards. There's not much better than a fresh peach from the backyard.

And home again we are. It's really tough trying to get in the swing of things here, the house looks like a few tornados hit it...hopefully in the next week or so we'll get it put back together! What a great time we had. We wished we had been able to visit more friends, but there just wasn't time to do anything more in this packed trip! Maybe next time!